I recently ran into the mention of INT8 and, by association, SERIAL8 by Informix engineers and a recent redbook. I want to make a quick comment on that.

These two types were added a long time ago to support the eight-byte integers (64 bits). They are defined as being a 10-byte structure that includes two "standard" integers. It was done this was so eight-byte integers could be supported on 32-bit operating systems. Now it appears that most operating systems support a native 64-bit integer. For this reason, new data types were added to Informix version 11.50 (fixpack 1). The new types, BIGINT and BIGSERIAL, take less space and perform better. Here is what the release notice says:

Improved Query Performance for Large Integers and Serial DataThe BIGINT and BIGSERIAL data types, which are provided as alternatives to the INT8 and SERIAL8 data types. can provide better performance than the INT8 and SERIAL8 data types.

So, let's forget about INT8 and SERIAL8 and let's use BIGINT and BIGSERIAL available in Informix 11.50.

In my blog entry of February 17, 2010, I had to put out a retraction about the common drivers. As I said then, I had to start lobbying for their inclusion with Informix.

I am happy to report that the Informix client SDK version 11.50.xC7 includes these drivers. Note that they are not included in Informix 11.50.xC7. I would expect that future releases of Informix will include a CSDK that has the common drivers.

There is a bit of work to do after the CSDK installation to complete the common drivers installation. I'll cover that in an other blog entry later. If you need information on how to use the common drivers, I suggest you download:

Yet, there are some people that still don't 'get' Informix, or realize the many benefits of deploying it. Help us gather data to support this claim.

- Informix is exceptionally hardware efficient, which means that (in the REAL world) you need to spend MUCH less on hardware to get the same performance as other products.

- Informix is exceptionally reliable, which means that (in the REAL world) you don't need to pay lots of people to make sure it stays 'up'.

- Informix is exceptionally scalable, which means that (in the REAL world) it can be idling one moment and then processing thousands of transactions the next with no apparent stress.

Advanced DataTools is working with Oninit, to gather data about what happens in the REAL world to support these assertions with empirical evidence in the REAL world.

The data collected will be used to compile a report that will be made available to every CTO, IT Director and IT Manager. Along with this, they will receive a list of all the major application vendors that are now porting their applications to Informix V11.5 and a document outlining the key reasons to choose Informix.

Win an Apple iPad. One randomly selected participant in the data collection phase of this research will win an Apple iPad, provided by Advanced DataTools Corporation, an Advanced IBM Informix Business Partner.